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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Sea Turtle Hatching

After our visit to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, Dave and I continued to take our nightly walks on the beach and approached each nest to see if we could see any changes.We were really lucky this year as according to the markers on the nests, there were several that were due to hatch while we were at the resort. Still, we were well aware that having the chance to observe a hatching was not great, as there is no way to predict the actual date and time of a hatching and the whole process doesn't take very long. On Wednesday night however, the unlikely happened! Dave noticed what looked like a small hatchling on top of one nest. At first we thought it might be dead, and perhaps the hatching already occurred. We stood there quietly for a moment and upon closer inspection we thought we saw it move slightly. We waited a little longer, practically holding our breath. There was not a lot of moonlight on this particular evening so it was a little difficult to see, but a few moments later it appeared that the sand was starting to move. I quickly grabbed my cell phone and called Pam to say "I think we may have a hatching starting." She immediately squealed "We have a hatching!" to David and Lisa and the three of them came running down to the beach. As they raced across the sand David was quickly reminding the girls to be quiet and keep their cell phone lights off...basically reiterating everything we were told at the LMC earlier in the week.
To our utter amazement, we were fortunate enough to observe a mass of baby sea turtles emerging from the nest. Two other women arrived around this time, and they too were in awe at the scene unfolding before us. (Please excuse the quality of the photos...there was not a lot of moonlight and I've lightened and enhanced the photo as much as possible to try to show you what we saw)
Pam and Lisa stayed at the edge of the water watching the hatchlings work so hard to scramble over the many footprints and indentations in the sand to make it to the ocean. David stood by the nest trying to watch for any turtles that were attracted to the lights on shore and possibly guided in the wrong direction, just as we had been instructed at the LMC. The rest of us just stood on the side and stared in wonder at how quickly the scene was unfolding.